23rd June 2024 - Celebration Service

Yes, thanks, well, good to be back with you. How many

were how many were there yesterday? Almost everybody. I think it was a

great day, wasn't it. Well keep We're just going to celebrate all weekend

with Dave and Juliet. That's what we're doing. And Lois, thank you.

Give Lois a hand well done. Thanks to the Urban worship and your

drummer, the jack of all trades. He's got headphones, he's got computers

and he's doing the rhythm. And thanks Johnifer. Thanks to everybody that served

yesterday as well. It was a great day, great day to honor.

The Bible says to honor those right to whom honor is due, and so

that was well done yesterday. Well, this morning, I have a message

that was birth out of a recent time when I was at a church doing

some prophetic training and one of the things that pastor said, I want you

to do a real found setting, funcational about the prophetic and I went,

okay, I could do that. I began to pray because I have tons

of material, as probably doesn't, and boy, God led me to this

passage in the Book of James. So we're going to go to James chapter

three and I thought, you know, if it comes down to the essentials,

to the very foundation of any kind of utterance for God, whether it's

a prophetic utterance, whether we're preaching, whether we're praying, whether we're worshiping

like we just did, it really comes down to how we use our tongue.

Isn't it right? How we use our tongue? And God just said

it is foundational to everything. I mean everything. You'll see why when James

begins to give us some insights to how powerful our words are and how the

tongue, of all the members of the body is the most untamable part of

our body. So this morning, we're just kind of together and this we're

all in this together. We look at taming the tongue, how we harness

the power of our words. We go to James Chapter three, beginning in

verses one and two. Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers,

for you know, and that we who teach will be judged with greater

strictness. I mean, I'm just confessing I start out with the greatest risk

this morning. You know, it's risky to even teach this, according to

James. Okay, so I'm doing the teaching. Okay, look at verse

two for we all stumble in many ways. Isn't it interesting how James includes

himself in this because he's saying, we're all in this together, and I'm

saying that too, We're all in this together. We all stumble in many

ways, and if anyone does not stumble in what he says, so we

stumble in many ways. Now he's focusing stumbling on what we say the tongue.

If we don't do that, we become mature, or he calls it

a perfect man perfect it's teleios and the Greek it means mature, not flawless,

mistake free. I'm a mist take free Christian. No, you're not.

Nobody is. But if we do not stumble in what we say,

we become more mature, able to bridle wash this the whole body. If

you can tame your tongue, if you can bridle your tongue, you can

bridle your whole body. Did you know your tongue and your toes are connected.

We were singing the bone song, right, We were going to do

that an honor of yesterday, but we decided not to. You know,

the handbone is connected to the bone. Well, the tongue is connected to

everything, your whole body. Wow. So the lesson here is not many

should be teachers because our words are more strictly judged. That means we all

must be learners first before we want to become teachers. And so he begins

with this personal confession. We all stumble in many ways, and I'm thinking

maybe he's reflecting on his own life at this moment. We got to remember

James was the half brother of Jesus, and you think about that, he

spent maybe twenty or plus years living with Jesus. He his brother. Can

you imagine that maybe they shared a bedroom. I don't know if you,

if you have siblings, if you ever spoke an unkind word or were tempted

to with a sibling, I've heard it can happen. Now. We had

four perfect children. They never spoke anything. No. I had a brother

too, and we shared a bedroom, and we bantered, of course,

and we fought, and we were very close even to this days. Great,

but you know there's a lot of gibborist that goes on sometimes between siblings.

And I'm thinking James is probably going, oh boy, I remember sometimes

I've said some kind of some snide comments about Jesus. You know. I

mean, after all, every morning when I wake up, he was already

up, done his devotions, his bed was made, and he's not making

breakfast for the whole family here, Like, how do you live with a

guy like that? He's probably thinking I kind of was a little snyde sometimes,

and so when James is thinking, yeah, I had some things.

I stumbled over my words sometimes. But it's fascinating that just pointing out in

First Corinthians fifteen, how Paul's writing to the Corinthians to talk about Jesus after

he was raised from the dead, before he ascended, he points out some

particular people that Jesus appeared to. He appears to Peter and says, then

to the twelve, then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one

time, and then verse seven says, and then he appeared to James.

He singled out two particular guys he needed to appear to. He appeared to

Peter because Peter just needed that after his Then he appeared to one of his

brothers, James, and I think he probably did that to say James's okay,

I just wanted to assure you of the power of forgiveness. All those

words you said forgiven, just want to assure you because maybe he was,

like James is still a little bothered about this. And so we look at

James today as our mentor, he who maybe had an untamed tongue at one

time, became a man matured so that words would not hurt or sear or

destroy, but they would become filled with grace. So James has shown us

how difficult it is to master the tongue. He who has mastered the tongue

as a mature man. So here we go. You're ready, say,

James, help us. I call him doctor James. I call him doctor

James. You know, it's like he's given us a tongue examination, and

it's like, okay, give us a tongue examination, let us have it.

And I think there's another thing that is just wow, huge, what

I call the kind of the overture of the whole symphony on the tongue.

James gives us a clue back in chapter one, Let's go there, James

one twenty six. He says this, anyone thinks that he's religious and does

not tithe ooops. If anyone thinks he's religious, and doesn't go to church.

Boops. If anyone thinks he's religious and doesn't read his Bible, you

know, we could go on and on. What makes us think we're religious?

I don't know, he says. But anyone thinks he's religious and does

not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is what nothing

empty vein nada, oh let he's not here. I don't to speak Spanish.

Nothing. That's a pretty strong like wow, bring the tongue is not

only like what do I say? Sometimes what don't I say? What should

I not say? My great grandfather was from Northern Ireland and he had an

old saying it's better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and

remove all doubt. So the man who's bridled his tongue can move from speaking

to silence. But then there's a time maybe to move from silence to speaking.

That ability, by the grace of God, to say the right thing

to the right person at the right time, in the power of the Holy

Spirit, in faith. That's grace. That's a magnificent grace, not only

in your life but to other people. Grace filled words. You know,

we can speak law, or we can speak grace, just by choice of

words. I learned this from a friend of mine. You know, when

we say you need to instead of you know, you could, You know

it's a difference, but you know you really should. Well you know what

you could? Those little things you ought to, Those words like ought,

need to, should, why don't you Those are words of law. They

impose law upon you. But whereas like you know, I want to encourage

you to, you could really do this. I can see you doing that.

It turns the whole conversation around. Well, nobody's mastered the tongue finally,

because there's so much disproportionate power. We're going to go to the next

few verses Versus three through five, and James points out the disproportionate power of

our little tongue. So he uses some very interesting analogies here. He says,

if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us,

and we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships.

Also, though they're so large, driven by strong winds, they're guided by

a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the

tongue. It's a small member, yet it boasts of great things. Notice

how he's using a metaphor here, and the images of a bridle for the

horse and a rudder for the ship. It's kind of helping us see the

analogy. So back to verse three describes how the tongue affects us. I

say us, because think about it. A horse has a will. We

have a will, and a ship doesn't have a will. It's under the

command or the governance of the pilot. The tongue affects us, but you

know what, the tongue also affects our circumstances. So I look at the

horse like the analogy of personal and then the ship is more circumstantial. Those

are circumstances created by our tongues. Both cases, something very small controls something

very large. Horses and ships. Well, the horse has a will.

The horse is a living being. The horse has to have its will brought

under control of another. We have to have our will brought on the control

of another. And here's the thing. You know, you can repent quickly

with your tongue. You can turn quickly something that happened. You can turn

your own will quickly by saying I'm sorry. You're right, I'm sorry,

boom. Like that. You can turn a horse quickly, one jerk this

way, one jerk that way, hold back. You can quickly do things

for the will of the one. But a ship takes a lot longer to

turn. It just doesn't turn on a dime, as we say, it

doesn't turn quickly. That's our circumstances that are created by the tongue. Circumstances

take a lot longer to turn around. You can turn yourself around quickly,

can't turn your circumstances around so quickly. But what you can do is keep

speaking to your circumstances and make a slow turn. You just keep speaking the

right direction, get your hand on the rudder and going right direction right,

they will turn like a great ship. Circumstances can change. We get impatient

because we want them to change immediately, and they don't. So James,

I think uses the analogy like you can change what you did quickly like the

horse, I'm sorry. How quick we can say I'm sorry. We have

to be quick to forgive. Then he goes on to talk about the consequences,

the circumstances, the destruction, and he really points the destruction of caused

by the tongue in verse five and six. So he's got one more.

He's on a roll. Now the pictures are coming out. Here's another picture.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great

things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire.

Now there's another little Christian song that's so cute. It only takes a spark

to you know, that one, to get a fire going. It's a

cute little kids Christian song. You know, like all it takes a spark.

Yeah, it only takes a spark to destroy and whole forest. Right,

And they says, by the way, let me tell you verse six,

the tongue is a fire. He didn't say it's like a fire.

He said it is a fire. Wow, a world of unrighteousness. Wow,

James is getting kind of big. The tongue is set among our members

standing, the whole body, setting on fire, the entire course of life,

and set on fire by hell. This is heavy. I know it's

going to get better, folks. But James is kind of like, y'all

need to wake up. He was from the South, like, no,

y'all need to wake up. It's like this is a wake up call.

The tongue is a fire set on fire by Hell or Ghana is the Greek

which was a symbolic place for final punishment of the sinners. Like this is

satanic, to be honest with you, saying this comes from Hell. And

he says, it's a world of unrighteousness. The word world. There is

cosmos, cosmos, a cosmos of iniquity. Cosmos is something ordered. There's

an order to our words, or our words can create order, an ordered

system. The world God so loved, the cosmos that he gave is only

begond sonny. He so loved the ordered system. I call it the world

stage. It's where life is played out twenty four to seven all over the

globe. It's big. God so loved the world, the cosmos. And

you think about that. The tongue is part of the cosmos. It's part

of an invisible ordered system. It's invisible. I mean most of the time,

we don't really spend a lot of time looking at tongues unless you're a

doctor. Stick out your tongue and say, ah, that's where you get

your exam. But he's saying this invisible ordered system, the cosmos. He

says it sets on fire the course of nature. Now that phrase is interesting

too. It means the cycle, picture a wheel, the cycle of existence,

or the wheel of what you're becoming. I like the way the Greek

says that it sets on fire, the wheel of becoming. It's like turning

a wheel. Every word you speak moves the wheel one direction or the other.

Troksa says the Greek word, and it means something that's properly a wheel

set on a track that's moving along the track. You know, your life

is like that. Your life is like a wheel that's constantly moving, and

your tongue determines how that wheel moves. It sets on fire, By hell,

gosh, that's strong. Proverbs eighteen twenty one Life and death are in

the power of the tongue. These are big things, but you know,

sometimes it's so easy to forget about it, ignore it. And half the

time our tongues are just invisible even to us. We don't aware. Sometimes,

you know, it's like this little thing is in my mouth, and

men, it has a lot of power, and it can destroy. We

can affect with our tongues the invisible world around us. We can affect the

natural world too, which we can see the bit in the horse's mouth can't

be seen. The run on a ship's below the surface can't be seen.

But whatever's in the invisible world controls the visible world. That's how creates the

creatures started. That's Genesis one. You have this invisible world called eternity,

couldn't be seen because it was beyond mortality. It was immortality. And then

God said, let there be light boom, and so the invisible world affected

the visible world. The spirit world controls the visible world. Let's not be

naive to know that there are spirits at work all the time. We hallelujah,

have the Holy Spirit we want. But you know what, there's evil

spirits. It's all through the Bible. So our tongues are important. I

mean, that's how you cast out devils. We speak with new tongues,

thank God, you know. And so there's a lot going on in the

spirit world that's affected by our words in our tongue. We speak in visible

worlds, but they can affect the entire cycle of existence. They can set

things in the direction quickly. Prophecy is so powerful because see it's where we

take something from the invisible immortal world, where God is the kingdom and bring

it into reality through words. We wrap words around an invisible force called God's

love, and we turn it into a prophetic word that goes inside of a

human that can change the course of their life. Prayer does that too,

preaching all this stuff. That's why James said, who we who do this

may come under stricter judgment because we're affecting people's lives. That's what I tell

people that we train in the prophetic I said. The reason why we have

to train and why we have guidelines and rules, I said, because you

can miss somebody's life up with a false prophecy, right, and you've probably

seen some of that. So what do we do? Well, we have

to tame the tongue. I just made a terrible statement. You didn't catch

it. I said, we have to tame the tongue. Guess what.

We can't tame the tongue. I know I trapped you. I'm sorry.

It's a preacher trade. So we have to do this and go, yeah,

we have to No, we can't. Wat's this verse seven and eight.

Every kind of beast and bird, reptile secret Oh, we can tame

those, and it has been tamed by mankind. I've been to Sea World

in Florida a few times. When we used to live in Florida. You

got this big orca that's bigger than this room. And they've learned how to

tame an orca and put it in tank, swim around with it, jump

off. I mean, you can tame the wild beast, elephants, you

name it. We can tame all that, James says. But verse eight,

no human being contain the tongue. Y'all should look happy like we're all

in this together. Come on, we're all in this together. It's like,

no human can tame the tongue. What does that mean? It takes

something outside of humanity to tame the tongue. We need the Holy Spirit,

we need our God. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison.

Wow, I think James is kind of going. Is going back to Genesis

one, Genesis one, and Genesis three and Genesis one. We're commanded by

God to take dominion over every creature. He says, well, we can

tame creatures big and small. Then James says, this taming is done by

man. But then he says, there was a fall in Genesis three,

and when the fall came, he's reminding us something more wild than a wild

beast of the field was the man's tongue and it can't be tamed. And

that's where we became infected, inoculated with deadly poison, and we saw it

quickly. Canaan Able started with their words turned into murder. So James says,

it takes more than natural ability to tame your tongues. It takes more

than just I'm not going to say anything. I'm not I want to,

but I'm not inside this little conversation and it's like I want to say something

right now. It takes more than just human will power. The only thing

that can really subdue the tongue is knowledge of the Word of God because it's

supernatural. Yeah, it's a book, it's got words, but these words

aren't God breathed. These are God's words. So the wisdom that we're told

to ask for in James one says that many of you lack wisdom, let

him ask of God, not google God, right, I mean we all

google, right, But when it comes to this kind, it says,

this kind of wisdom comes down from above. Two kinds of wisdom he talks

about in James three. Also, so through the knowledge of the word,

and then the application of that knowledge. We can have God come in and

tame our tongue. And the longer I think you walk with God and the

more you take in His word. It's not that it's easier, you just

become more aware and you can have you know, we say the tongue.

But you know how many have inner conversations, silent conversations we all do?

We call it self talk? You're talking? Do you realize you talk to

yourself more than you talk to anybody, And half the time you don't even

know it, but you're constantly So this is recently. One time, my

office is in the basement of our home and I'm going down the stairs.

I had just done something stupid, honestly, but I inside I just want

I'm walked down the stairshake in my head going and inside inside I said,

you're such an idiot, And immediately I knew it was a meeting. Because

I was on that track of just self deprecation. I heard the Lord say,

I don't say that about you. It was so shocking and so clear,

and so right away I knew it was God, and it caused me

to stop for a minute, went oh, you don't say that about me.

He just corrected me quickly about my own inner tongue, and I had

to go back and just I repented, and I just had to I had

to revisit who I am in Christ. I had to revisit my own identity

because the devil doesn't want you to really get a revelation of who you are.

He doesn't want you to have a revelation of how God talks to you.

He thinks he wants you to think God's mad at me, and I

just and he wants you to mumble and I'm such an idiot. And the

Devil's one, yeah you are. Boy. The Holy Ghost came in and

just said, I don't. I don't say that about you. So what

did that do for me? Linn? I got to watch what I say

about other people, starting with myself. So here's the big revelation of the

day. Are you ready? Don't don't go out there yet. You need

to really get ready. You might want to take notes on this. This

is the biggest revelation of the day. Are you ready? Okay, da,

here we go. Oh sorry, I'm ahead of myself. I thought

I had a slide before that or verse nine. There it is no beck.

Maybe not keep going back there it is the tongue has no ears.

Is that not profound? I was blown away by that thought. I guess

it sounded better in my head than a dozen years. Okay, so anyway,

but think about that. The tongue doesn't have any ears, only the

heart does. That's where you hear God. You don't hear God in your

tongue. You hear God in your heart. So as the heart hears the

word of God over and over, day and night, day and night.

Someone says, then heart transformation begins to take place, and a transformed heart

produces a transformed tongue. That's the source. That's what we got to always

go for. And you know that. But it's kind of like good to

remember. These things are connected powerfully. As a man thinketh in his heart,

so is he, And as the out of the abundance of the heart

the mouth speaks. We all know these but it's kind of like, wow,

we got we gotta we got to watch what's coming in our hearts.

We got to take inventory. We've got to put filters up. That's why

Psalm nineteen is so powerful. Verse fourteen, it says let the words of

my mouth tongue, the meditations of my heart say they're connected, be acceptable

in your sight, God, my strength and my redeemer. That's so powerful.

We got to keep hiding god word in our heart. When you do

that, there's this kind of a supernatural taming that comes into the tongue because

the heart starts taking over. Okay, with the word of God. Hey,

word of God is quick, is powerful, sharper than the two edges

sword, as he was four able to discern the thoughts and the intents of

the heart. The word of God will discern you. And that's like it

did with me. Suddenly I got quick discernment like who I don't say that

about you? And is powerful to transform you're thinking. So one more thing

to think about is the deadly inconsistency of heart and or of the tongue.

I mean, let's go to verse nine through twelve. Are almost done.

So James goes on to say, now with it, we bless the Lord.

Okay, we bless our Lord and Father, and we curse people that

are made in the likeness of God. What with the same tongue we just

got done. We praise him. That was great, right, with that

same tongue. We're all capable. Remember we we. He's using the word

we, not you. We curse people who are made in the likeness of

God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. Watch this, who's

he talking to? My brothers, sisters, Christians? Family? These things

ought not to be? So does a spring pour fourth from the same opening

both fresh and salt water? No can a fig tree, my brothers again,

family, can a fig tree? Bear olives? Can a grape vine?

Pudduced? Fix? Neither can assault pond yield fresh water. James is

bringing this contradiction that he addresses in the previous couple of chapters in the area

of the tongue. People in the church will come. Yes, we all

do it. We can get into worship, praise God, hallelujah. We

lift up our voice. And then as soon as they're outside the door,

before they get to the car, they already like, why would you think

of the sermon that great? Well? How about the worship? Well,

I don't know, they didn't do my favorite song, Like, well,

they weren't worshiping you good thing? I mean just being that's what we do.

Like I do you think of worship's all right, Well, it's not

about you. Nobody's worshiping you. But we were quick to just kind ofly

turn the faucet right, fresh water salt water. This ought not to be

so because it's inconsistent with who Christ is in us. Right, So the

final pictures of the fountain shooting out fresh water and salt water and nature and

trees and all this. And he's just addressing our carnality. We talked about

that a little bit yesterday. The flesh, Thank God, when the flesh

rots away, we have the bones left, right, And he's just addressing

our carnality. And maturity doesn't come because you know how to praise God or

sing along on the screen. That does. That's not a mark of maturity.

The greatest step to spiritual maturity is controlling your tongue. And we're all

in this together, but we can help each other. Early in our marriage,

we got into some and we call it the Word of Faith teaching,

but it was good bye. We didn't have any faith. Okay, we're

new in the kingdom, and I remember hearing the good teaching about your words

and it's very sound and biblical. And the one thing we kind of got

into what they called the confession movement. You know, I'm just confessing.

It's almost like I'm wishing for this, so I'm going to confess it.

And Africa Dabra is going to come to pass. We have people abuse it

and they do. I'm just confessing a new car. I'm just confessing it.

Do you have any money? No, I'm confessing a new car.

But the power of confession is still biblical because Jesus is the high priest of

our confession. Confession in the Greek is homo logion, which means say the

same words we get logos. It means what say the same words that God

says, say the same That's why, that's why confessing scripture is powerful.

Let the words of my mouth and the to teach my heartbeaxcept Where's that going

to come from? Here? Psalm one Blessed is the man walks in the

not in the council, and the God what in his word, He delights

and meditates day and night. So this power of confession is not only good

for us, it's good for others. And let me just say this,

It's only possible through God's word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Do

you know that your words have the power to heal. Where do you get

that from? Oh, let's try Proverbs fifteen verse four. I don't have

it up here, but Proverbs fifteen verse four, A gentle or wholesome tongue

is a tree of life, and literally in the Hebrew it means healing.

Yeah, a healing tongue is a tree of life. But perverseness in it

breaks the spirit. You can break someone's spirit quickly, and I confessed I

did that with my kids sometimes. I could see I was harsh, I

was quick to react, I was angry, And you can see right away

you're not trying to break their spit. You're trying to turn them like a

bit in the horse's mouth, you know, trying to use words to train

our children too. And you know we want to be healers to the world.

You want to be healers to the lost. So one more little thing

that's not in the slides. And these are all bonus days because it's Day's

birthday, so you get a bonus revelation. Think about this. Think about

Acts chapter two. What happened on the day at Pentecosts. How did God

symbolize the coming of the Holy Spirit tongues tongues of fire, So the fire

comes from two different sources. James says, the fire can come from hell.

Your tongue can be set on fire from hell. Or if you heal

to the Holy Spirit and get filled with him, now you can have tongues

of fire from heaven. That's why praying and speaking tongues is so powerful,

and that's why the devil he hates it. It so counters tongues of hell.

It's absolutely counters that. The more you speak in tongues, it just

continues to tame your tongue. That's why people have a hard time speaking tongue

because, you know what, they don't want to yield your tongue. The

most untamable member of the body says, No, it makes no sense to

me. I'm not gonna do it. I'm gonna sound so stupid and all

those things go running quickly. We'll just try it. No, I've tried,

and God just hasn't given it to me. And God, I'm bad.

The Devil's just like he's got a whole mantra of how he can stop

people from getting tongues of heaven because he knows once that happens. I'm out.

He has to go dark. He can't join the conversation anymore. He

can't get in that frequency, because this clearly says he that speaks in tongue

speaks directly to God, not to man or the devil. Now he can

hear you, but he can't understand he speaks mysteries. Come on, this

is powerful. Pentecostal people, shang gadabada daka. Yeah, it's powerful,

and that's why the devil hates it. So you want to give the devil

ah headache tomorrow, wake up and speak in tongues. First thing, he'll

run out the door. Oh these people, I'm serious, all right.

So let's close with something exual. We're going to go out of the back

to the old time. Look at the words of Isaiah, chapter fifty.

We have it up here, verse four. The Lord God has given me

the tongue of one who is taught. You have to have a teachable tongue.

This is the prophet speaking. He's revealing how God trained him as a

prophet. And he's done that so that I may learn how to sustain those

who are weary. So he awakens my ear to hear as those who have

been taught. We want to say, God, I want you to use

my tongue to bring a word to somebody who needs it, he who is

weary, and that in the great people, we are going to be someone

weary from battle. People are in a battle every day, so were you.

But we have victory, and we have the world on our side,

and it's our privilege to speak a word to he who is weary and due

season and refresh them so that God can sustain someone who's weary. So you

know what, He's given me, the tongue of one who is taught.

How many of you are not from Britain, did not grow up here?

This is not your English, is not your mother tongue. Look at this,

This is amazing. It's not your mother tongue. But I'm guessing you

look like you're understanding most of what I'm saying. You've had to learn a

new language, haven't you. But you know what, you still have an

accent, and you know what, you should be proud of your accent.

You should be. But we all need to learn to speak with the accent

of heaven. Jesus spoke with an accent. Yeah, it's like, where'd

that wisdom come from. It's like, who taught him to say that kind

of an accent? Is that? And we want the word of God to

dwell in us so richly that we can speak with no other accent. And

so there was a doctor one time coming out of surgery and he was a

Christian doctor and he's walking down the hallway and he's speaking in tongues and a

colleague kind of came up behind him and kind of caught up to him,

tap it on the should and say, excuse me, what language is that?

He goes, Oh, that's the language of my homeland. That's a

good answer, right, What language is that? Oh, language of my

homel where I'm from, And that's our accent. Okay. So the last

thing about this idea also comes from Isaiah. Don't think I have it up

here, but let me just read this. Isaiah fifty also says the Lord

has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, and that Isaiah fifty

three watch talking about Jesus. Think about Jesus in his tongue for a minute.

Let's go back to the master. Isaiah said that he was oppressed and

afflicted. Watch and he opened not his mouth. That's why I said,

there's a time to speak and a time to be silent. Jesus could have

spoken one time. He said, I could call down legions of angels,

wipe you all out, Romans. I could do that. He was silent

of every word that has come out of our lips. He was silent because

of our words that would have damned us, condemned us, because we've all

cursed him. We've all sinned, fallen short of the glory. And he

did not try to defend himself. Rather, he stood silent before his accusers

because of our sin and that he bore on his body. Gosh, the

sins of our lips and sins of our tongues. So we're all here saying

God, I need this. Come on, let's be real for a minute.

We all said there, yeah, God, I need this. I

need your help this morning. I need help controlling my tongue. I need

help so that my tongue cannot only be controlled and I can become mature.

But God, I want to have a healing tongue. I want to speak

words of life to people, words to he who that is weary to sustain

somebody. I want to help somebody turn their their wheel in the right direction.

I want to be quick to repent like the horse, just quick,

but I also want to continue to speak positively about my circumstances. So we

just come today together and say, God, be merciful to me, a

sinner like this Republican did. But we thank you that Jesus came. We

thank you that Jesus was silent in order that he would bear the penalty of

all the misuse of our own tongues. We think you can you thank them

for that just in your heart, say, Lord, thank you for being

silent before your accusers because you knew you're about to pay the penalty for the

sin of the world, including mine. So Father, we asked for your

help today. We hopefully today through the word of God. We just broke

open your word, Lord, But did not our hearts burn? It's the

disciples on a Mais road said, our heart's begin to burn. And God,

we want a fiery heart. We want a heart that's set on fire,

not of hell, but of heaven. And we come gratefully to you

today in worship. That's acknowledging you that you're you have all the worth.

We sang it, you're worthy of it all right, He's worthy. And

I just think I'm going to close with it just a short little four line

stands out of a great old hymn that came to my thinking when I was

doing this, and it's this simply, Oh for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer's praise the glories of my God and King, the triumphs of

his grace. Yeah, imagine that, Oh for a thousand tongues to say,

I won't have them be amazing. We'll all have sanctified tongues. You

know, it's going to be amazing words all the time. But while we're

here, we need him to help us become mature. Amen, God bless

you have an awesome day. Use your tongues to bless people. Use your

tongues to say happy birthday to Dave today, on your way on, and

God bless Amen.